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So yeah, beta testing time draws near!
page 2

Necrobump! So yeah, I finally got around to the FGL pre-review thing and yeah, they really are helpful. Maybe I got lucky, but the line was so short that it was done in less than 12 hours. (I uploaded the game to FGL late last night, it was done when I sat down to check at around 12a-1p pst)
It really is useful to watch someone who looks at tons of games sit down and experience yours as “just another game” from a potential sponsor’s viewpoint. It looks like my “tutorial” is too wordy and my first few levels are way too hard. (He never made it past the first, LOL) FFFFUUUUU! Maybe I should thrust the difficulty selection in the player’s face when they start a new game instead of just defaulting it to normal and hoping they decide to change it in the options screen.
Apparently, my game is too hard and needs to be toned down. And have a derptastically-clickable mute button, because right-click doesn’t cut it. And a bunch of other things. Man, I’ll never be done with this! :D
Anyway UnknownGuardian, how did you save your pre-review video?

Would anyone be interested if I started offering video reviews w/ commentary, akin to FGL pre-reviews, at $12/hour? I believe FGL has a service like this already (After the first free one) at $10 for 15 min, and you can get anonymous reviewers for $5 per 5 minutes, no audio.

$12/hour for 15 minutes is like, 3 dollars per review. Good for lunch money, but that’s about it. Also, you’d have to approach the game exactly like a sponsor shopping for marketing tools, NOT as an avid gamer. It was fun watching my reviewer bumble around in the tutorial/first level, and then freak out when the first level’s boss inundated him with “OMG! BULLETS!” He was obviously not familiar with the bullet hell genre, but that’s fine. I suspect most flash games will have the same reaction.
And I don’t have to give up the hardcoreness. I think I need to just make easy…even easier. Or something like that. And again, force the player to choose the difficulty when they select a new game.

> Anyway UnknownGuardian, how did you save your pre-review video?
I actually just used chrome dev tools to see the file that the video player was loading and saved it directly. Not sure if I was supposed to do that or not. I did ask them a while back if I could do so and they said something about crediting FGL so IDK.
> *Originally posted by **[truefire](/forums/4/topics/285157?page=2#posts-6220147):***
>
> Would anyone be interested if I started offering video reviews w/ commentary, akin to FGL pre-reviews, at $12/hour? I believe FGL has a service like this already (After the first free one) at $10 for 15 min, and you can get anonymous reviewers for $5 per 5 minutes, no audio.
See the problem with a non-FGL staff doing it would be that you don’t know, really, what sponsors are looking for as well as FGL does. Furthermore, I could spend 5 FI (or $5) on FGL for basically the same type of review.

Oh I’d have no plans to ever use the pre-review video for anything other than personal/archival purposes, as nothing on the internet truly lasts.
PS: Now that it’s on FGL, you guys should like, go look at it and give me your impressions. :D

> See the problem with a non-FGL staff doing it would be that you don’t know, really, what sponsors are looking for as well as FGL does.
Already considered that. I’d be ~~writing~~ video-ing a review for how to make a better game, not how to make a more profitable game. I think there are _some_ people who still care about that. And I think I’m as qualified as FGL staff in that regards. Furthermore, the two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive anyway.
> Furthermore, I could spend 5 FI (or $5) on FGL for basically the same type of review.
5FI gives you a five minute review, I’d give a 60 minute review for $12 (buyable in increments of 15). Mine is one fifth the price. And honestly, you can’t do a lot of games justice in 5 minutes. Yes, that’s probably all the sponsor will see. But that’s not all the players will see. And that’s not all the developer will see by a long shot.
Also the video FIs generally don’t have audio commentary, mine would.
> Now that it’s on FGL, you guys should like, go look at it and give me your impressions.
A tip on FGL etiquitte. If someone reviews your game, and they have a “Current game up for review: [Mygame]” thing in their signiature, it’s considered bad form to not give them some feedback (or at least a play) as well. At least that’s the impression I’ve got. It’s also a good idea to PM thanks to anyone who writes a particularly good post on your feedback thread. (Not that that ever happens \>.\>)
Also, you have some influence on how many community points someone gets for feedback (lower right corner of their post), don’t overlook that.
Also also also, your game is not clickable by me on your profile, and doesn’t show up in search. Are you sure it’s enabled for developer viewing? (Do we have to have an approved game, because I have none yet)

I wasn’t sure which links I should (and should not) provide. If I provide the FGL link, only people who meet my designated criteria can access it, right?
Edit for truefire: Ninja poster! Yeah, I actually figured all that to be the case. So far, I’ve only got like 3 views and no comments/feedbacks/anything. Maybe that’s normal though, since it’s only been up for about 12 hours now.

> 5FI gives you a five minute review
Its actually up to 15 min review.
> I wasn’t sure which links I should (and should not) provide. If I provide the FGL link, only people who meet my designated criteria can access it, right?
If you set up the viewing permissions correctly, the link will work with the criteria.

Add me. Username: Senekis
Will give feedback.
About the difficulty selection screen, you could use that model where you do it like:
**Easy**
_Select this if you’ve never played a bullet hell game_
**Normal**
_…_
I bet it’s not that hard, but the one who did the review was a bit unskilled. Messages like that would help. Normal translates into “OMG, impissibru!” for unskilled players.

Seems interesting. I’m a bit scared of the coloring/art style. You’ve got a lot of content that is nice and all, but the way that it is laid out could come off as unexperienced. A lot of the things you used, like red glows, interesting/uncommon textures, super plain scrolling backgrounds, mix of bevels and flat style, etc could be taken as negative aspects.
I really thing the UI could use some rethinking that could overall benefit your game. Your game’s art style kind of reminds me of the early Protector series, so you might want to take a look at how they handled a standard art style.
And to take a stab at the pre-review rating, I’d guess a 6 or 6.5
* * *
And to help people like truefire, add him as a friend and make sure permissions are set to always let friends view games. (or do the fan option)

> super plain scrolling backgrounds
No, shoosh you fiend! The old backgrounds used to be high-detail and high-contrast and they killed your eyes.
> I really thing the UI could use some rethinking
This. especially the in-level HUD

@Truefire: FGL username? I have it set to allow people I’m following to always view, so if I add you, you should be able to see it.
@Senekis: Added. And yeah, I want to make sure people unfamiliar with the genre are pointed toward easy without thinking that “easy” is “noob mode” (even though it is. ha!)
@UnknownGuardian: The inexperienced look sounds about right, since this is my first game of any worth, after all. Up until I started this, I also haven’t had any real experience with graphics & art. I mean sure, I used to doodle in classes, but none of those were very good either. I’ve been learning the whole design thing as well as how to program a game all at the same time with this.
And yup, it scored a 6 overall. Is that good by FGL standards, or just “lol, here’s $100—enjoy your sponsorship” material?
Edit: For the in-level hud, should I bevel it as well? You know, to kind of give it the same texture/appearance as the menus and such?

username = truefire
> And yup, it scored a 6 overall. Is that good by FGL standards, or just “lol, here’s $100—enjoy your sponsorship” material?
15% of 6-rated games get sponsored I believe.\* 6 is “Average” in non-numeric terms. My game got a 6 for it’s pre-review as well.
Care to give your pre-review breakdown?
\*According to my pre-review PM. Does anyone know if/where I can find some more detailed information by editor’s rating. I’m interested as well.

> And yup, it scored a 6 overall. Is that good by FGL standards, or just “lol, here’s $100—enjoy your sponsorship” material?
I hate to say it but yeh. Sponsorship is going to be super hard if you don’t have contacts with a 6.
> Edit: For the in-level hud, should I bevel it as well? You know, to kind of give it the same texture/appearance as the menus and such
D: I can just see what doesn’t look good. I have no idea what _does_ look good without seeing the final product. So I can’t really tell.

@Truefire: Added. Yeah, it’s 15% which was…disappointing. The breakdown was basically 6s across the board, except for sound which earned a 7. Laughably enough, I think I spent about 15 minutes tops screwing around with sfxr to make those sounds. Hmm, maybe it also includes music, which is good because I didn’t make it. ;)
@UnknownGuardian: Well, I guess I should play around with UI designs tomorrow, as I actually had a few in mind that I was going to use for sequels and crap. Maybe those designs will be rolling out sooner than expected.

> *Originally posted by **[saybox](/forums/4/topics/285157?page=2#posts-6220806):***
>
> I lost my FGL password and the reset password feature isn’t working. I’d like to try your game out if you haev it hosted privately anywhere else, though. I gives good feedbacks :)
Right now, it’s only on FGL. I had some early versions on my personal site, but from here on, I’m doing it through FGL only due to better security and feedback tools. Hmm, I can make you a fan account. Want one?

> except for sound which earned a 7. Laughably enough, I think I spent about 15 minutes tops screwing around with sfxr to make those sounds.
My sound got a 6, which I am not particularly happy with. I put like an hour and a half into clicking the “randomize” button on sfxr over and over and over.
> UI stuff
If you’re using bitmap assets for stuff, I’d be happy to touch them up for you. Can’t do much for vector, but I can give you some UI redesign tips at some point.

They’re bitmaps, (I don’t do vector graphics—too hard!) but I’m actually thinking I’ll scrap the entire look for every menu element. I’ve kind of been considering doing that anyway for awhile, but shrugged it aside with an “I just want to sell this fucking thing and move on.” Using stock photoshop textures and bevel/emboss was just me being lazy. :D

Sfxr is not really the direction you want to be taking if you plan on getting higher than a 6 or 7 in sound/music category for most games. It really needs a touch of non-randomly generated sound.
We took a risk and got custom music and sound effects for Ninja Sequence and got a 9 in the category. That helped solidify our editors rating.